There is an old saying that one half of the world does not know how the other half lives, but as far as this is true, very few of us really understand. In the East, indeed, it is almost amazing. There are people involved in trade, some of whom are very profitable, about whom the world as a whole has never heard of, and which an ordinary Englishman, in all likelihood, would refuse to believe, even if the most reliable evidence had been provided before him.